


The Panda Challenge

by storyteller0311



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 16:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4229544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyteller0311/pseuds/storyteller0311
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver and Felicity stop at a carnival while on their post-3x23 road trip. Pure fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Panda Challenge

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to write this after hearing an in-depth story on NPR about how claw machines in arcades are rigged.
> 
> No beta. Mistakes are my own.
> 
> This story was also posted on Tumblr under username historiangirl88.

“I was kidding Oliver!” she says as he walks towards the machine a few yards away.

When he pauses and grins back at her, Felicity can’t help but smile back. If someone had told her a month ago that Oliver Queen would have willingly gone to a carnival, let alone on an indefinitely long road trip, she would have promptly told them they were crazy.

“Seriously - it’s a waste of money,” she says coming to stand next to him in front of the machine. “Let’s just go get our frozen lemonade and cotton candy.”

“But they’re pandas Felicity! I know you love pandas. Don’t you want one?”

Felicity looks at the stuffed pandas in the claw machine in front of them. They were cute. (As she had just said out loud while passing the machine on their way toward the cotton candy booth. She really needed to work on that brain-mouth filter.) And, if you could believe it, she actually didn’t have a panda stuffed animal. “Okay. Let’s try,” she says grinning at Oliver. “But then, lemonade and cotton candy.”

Reaching into his pocket, Oliver took out multiple dollar bills and fed one into the machine. Placing his hand on the controls and looking through the the glass, he concentrated on his task.

Glancing over at Oliver, Felicity had to bite her lip so that she wouldn’t burst out laughing. You would have thought by the look on his face that he was gearing up for a battle.

“Damn it,” he mumbled. The claw had missed the panda and quickly retracted back to the top of the machine. He fed another dollar in the machine and tried again.

Felicity watched as his lips became a tense, thin line as he concentrated on maneuvering the claw to just the right spot.

“All right!” he exclaimed, smiling at her as the claw picked up the panda.

Suddenly the claw dropped the panda, letting it fall back on the pile.

“Um, Oliver,” Felicity said pointing at the machine.

“You have to be kidding me!” he grumbled.

Grabbing his hand, Felicity leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Come on, let’s go. I don’t need one. The game is rigged.”

“Just a few more tries,” he said lacing the fingers of his left through hers and reaching into his pocket for another dollar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten minutes and 8 dollars later Oliver was no closer to winning Felicity a panda and his frustration level was ready to boil over.

“This is ridiculous Felicity,” Oliver huffed as he ran his hand through his short hair and watched the claw retract back to the ceiling of the machine.

Make that 9 dollars later.

“It’s ridiculous because it’s rigged,” she said for the fifth time in the last five minutes. It really was rigged. She’d noticed that the machine had a pattern. First the claw would land perfectly on the panda, but then it wouldn’t pick it up. Next, it would pick it up fine, but ¾ of the way to the prize chute it would drop it unexpectedly.

“One more try,” he said, moving to insert another dollar in the machine.

As Oliver placed his hand once again on the controls, Felicity stopped him. “My turn,” she said, nudging him over so she could stand in front of the machine. Moving the control forward, Felicity aimed the claw above her prize and let it drop. Soon the panda was being lifted up and moving towards the prize chute.

“How did you do that?” Oliver said incredulously, turning to look at her as she grabbed the panda out of the machine.

“Luck?” she said with a grin, leaning toward him and giving him a lingering kiss.

“No, really, he mumbled against her lips. “How did you do that?”

Hugging the panda to her chest, she held her phone out to him, revealing that she’d hacked into the machine’s processor.

“You cheated!” he said, frowning a little.

“No, I just beat it at its own game,” she said with a chuckle. Looking up at him she said softly “thank you, by the way.”

“For what? I didn’t win you the panda,” he said, just a tiny bit of disappointment in his voice, as they joined hands and started to walk away.

“But you did get me the best prize,” she said quietly squeezing his hand. “My prize is the authentic Oliver Queen.”

“You’re remarkable, Felicity Smoak.”

“And don’t you ever forget it,” she teased, pulling him towards the cotton candy stand.


End file.
